Day 4 - Wednesday

Another Split Day

We planned to fish inshore to start with in the hope of catching more Roosterfish or whatever comes along. Then head out for more billfish.

Inshore Fishing

We spent the best part of 2 hours inshore fishing. The crew quickly caught enough live bait so we could concentrate on the actual fishing. However it wasn't to be - not even a positive bite.

Offshore Fishing

This was a very slow day. We were about 9 miles offshore and we didn't see any other boats for quite a while. Eventually we came across a floating log, these often signify fish close by and today was no exception. We immediately saw activity.

These are what we were always looking for. The crew immediately went on alert as we approached logs.

Anyway, back to the fishing. Garry had the first Sailfish of the day as we passed the first log we came across.

We then had another lean spell with little activity. After 90 minutes or so I had a Sailfish. This was a bit bigger than the others I had caught and it sounded (dived deep) several times as I thought I had got it beat.

After lunch and another lean spell, we came across another log. Sure enough it wasn't long before Garry was into a very big Dorado (Mahi-Mahi). As can be seen from the photo, these are not a catch and release species as they are plentiful and one of the fastest growing fish. They also happen to be very tasty.

Shortly after the Dorado, I was previewing the above photo on my camera when the crew became very excited as a Marlin was spotted showing interest in our bait. The crew tried several times to entice the fish to take the bait but it didn't happen. We circled around the log again and the Marlin once again put in an appearance and still refused to take the bait. Unfortunately we only had dead baits as we hadn't come across any Bonito or small Dorado today. I am sure a live bait would have been taken. I thought that it had attacked a teaser 10 ft from the boat but Garry thinks it was a Sailfish.

Another lean spell then I had another Sailfish. Whilst this initially shot off ahead of the boat, it turned out to be the smallest Sailfish I have had/seen on this trip.

A nice distraction

In the next lean spell we were visited by a few sea birds that flew in very close to the boat several times. I couldn't resist trying to get a few photos of them and am quite pleased with the results. Anyone who knows me will realise that the fishing must have been slow if I was being distracted by photos of birds!

Reminds me of Hilda Ogden's ducks!

One last Hoorah

Just when we thought the day was up, Garry was into a Sailfish. This did lots of aerial tricks but at quite a distance. I still managed a few nice stills of this.

Catch Summary

Garry

• 2 x Sailfish
• 1 x Dorado

Steve

• 2 x Sailfish

Overall Summary

This was a slow day compared to the others. It was our choice to start inshore fishing and that precluded us going far offshore where most of the fish are currently being taken. So, thats for tomorrow. An early start then a sail of at least 2 hours to get 40 - 45 miles offshore. Fingers crossed we can have a good last day (or at least 4 - 5 hours considering the outbound and return durations).

More inshore fishing today